FORMA
Forma, Vol. 12 (Nos. 3, 4), pp. 209-221, 1997
Original Paper

Hydraulic Stiffening of Cancelious Bone

Yves P. Arramon and Stephen C. Cowin

Department of Mechanical Engineering, The School of Engineering of The City College; and The Graduate School of The City University of New York, New York, NY 10031, U.S.A.

(Received December 17, 1995; Accepted November 11, 1996)

Keywords: Permeability, Hydraulic, Stiffening, Poroelasticly

Abstract. A poroelastic model is used in conjunction with generally accepted empirical rules for the variation of elastic moduli and permeability with porosity to demonstrate that the viscous interaction of the marrow with the trabecular structure is negligible except for extremely high applied load rates. A quantitative measure of hydraulic stiffening is introduced. The consequences to the hydraulic strengthening/stiffening theories are discussed.